A new life;
same as the old life?

Any Cubs fans who have been paying attention this year are probably thinking the same thing. The first three months have been rough, injuries, suspensions, and generally poor play across the board. The amazing thing is, we are still very much in the hunt, a mere 2.5 games back!

I have been to a few games already this year and have several more planned, but I could not let this particular game go by without note. A couple of weeks ago, Steve was able to secure tickets in the front row by the opposition bullpen. It was a gorgeous day, Cubs won 7-zip and the picture opportunities were awesome.

To top it all off, one of the guys with us, was a winner in a random draw to get our pictures taken on the field. Click here to check them out on the Captain Morgan website.

The other pictures are here, if you run the slideshow fast enough on the pitcher pictures, you can almost see the motion like one of those flicker books.

Some friends of ours decided to take a trip to the Big Apple, and asked us if we would like to coordinate a trip to meet up. We spent weeks going back and forth and eventually settled on a date around the April/May timeframe. Flights, hotels, vacation days, etc were booked. I have to say that I didn't remember NYC being so expensive, but then I always was coming from the UK. I was surprised though, that in this tough economy, hotels in Manhattan were still charging a minimum of $200 per night, plus $50 per day parking, and would not budge on the prices. So we started to look around and found a Super 8 just over the river in NJ, through the Lincoln tunnel. We got three nights for the price of one in Manhattan, and whilst not as convenient, or upscale, when you are only sleeping there, who cares?? But I am getting ahead of myself, let's start at the beginning.

We decided, mostly because flights are inconvenient with a baby, and certainly you still have to have cabs, rent cars, take baby seats, etc, that we would drive. This also afforded us the opportunity to take a bit of a road trip and see some of the country, although seeing it at 70mph doesn't really count! We decided to go via Niagara on the way there and take the direct shot via Cleveland on the way back. Lorraine had never been to Niagara before and I had only been once before, so we were excited.

Looking at the weather in advance, it didn't look good, with rain promised, pretty much for the entire week, and sure enough....We left at 6:15am on Thursday and drove to Niagara, arriving sometime around 6pm with several stops along the way. It LITERALLY and PHYSICALLY did not stop raining the ENTIRE journey. We didn't see much countryside along the way, but the journey generally went well. We had a quick dinner, wander along the riverside in the rain, and then went to bed.

Next day the rain actually had stopped and we spent the day doing the usual tourist stuff you do at Niagara Falls, GETTING WET from the spray. It is a fascinating place to visit, although the towns on either side of the border are very run down and generally not very nice. We started out by going into the Journey Behind The Falls. Tunnels which started in the early 1800s, have been expanded upon over the years, take you to two points, actually behind the horseshoe falls. You can see and feel the rush of the water as it pounds relentlessly over the precipice. The picture here does not really do it justice, but it was very cool.

Next we took a trip on the Maid Of The Mist, which sails you right into the horseshoe falls, getting completely soaked in the process. AJ hated it of course, with her new found loathing of showers, so I shielded her from the worst of it whilst Lorraine enjoyed the full magnificent force.


For the rest of the day we generally hung out in the area, went over to the US side and checked out the park there. Both sides are definitely worth the trip. You absolutely get the best views of both the American/Bridal Falls and the Horseshoe Falls from the Canadian side, but the you can get closest to the river and the actual falls on the American side.

Niagara Facts & Figures

• The flow rate over the Horshoe Falls is 600,000 US gallons per second, in the off season it is half that amount
• At night as in the off season, they half the flow rate by pumping water to the various power stations
• Until 1905, the erosion rate was almost 4ft per year, since then it has been reduced to approx 1ft in 10 years.
• It did actually pretty much completely stop running once in 1848, due to an upriver ice dam
• The park has been self funded since the 1800s, requiring no government money despite being a state park

Next day (Saturday) we set off for the city, and it RAINED, sporadically throughout the day, approximately 12 hour trip with stops. The journey was uneventful, but the scenery in upstate New York was beautiful when it wasn't raining. We arrived pretty late to NYC that night and retired early ready for a busy few days.

The next day (Sunday) we met our friends in the city, at their hotel, with a planned tour around some of the sights, being once again marred by the weather, but we went anyway!! We started by taking the Staten Island Ferry over to the island and back. For those who don't know, it's free, and a great way to see the skyline on Manhattan Island and the Statue Of Liberty. It was amazing to see that skyline without the Twin Towers, as I had not been back since before 9/11.

We went to South Street Sea Port, Empire State Building, and the Memorial for 9/11 set up right by the site. I have to admit that I was surprised by the "lack" of progress on the new building. Please understand that I don't mean this disrespectfully, understanding that it took several years to even clear the site, I guess I just had thought, some 8+ years later that we would have had some level of building showing above the fences by now, naive I suppose. We checked out the memorial right by the site, a very sombre experience. All sorts of pieces from the "wreckage" of the buildings, including personal effects, and a bunch of pictures of folks who were missing. It really was quite heart wrenching.

On Monday we had planned to go to Yankee stadium in the evening to take in a ball game, against the local rival Boston Red Sox. Our seats were up in the gods, which ended up being a good thing as it was once again, you guessed it, RAINING! We ended up being delayed for over two hours, and only being able to see the first two innings as we had to get back for our train. However it is a beautiful stadium with all mods cons, including a huge price tag for most refreshments. Hot Dogs $8, 12oz beer $9, compared to Wrigley at $4.50 and $6.50 (for a 16oz beer), scurrilous; but I guess they have to pay for the stadium, oh wait, NYC did that!!!!

We left home the next day and headed back to Illinois, tired, wet, bedraggled, but having had a good time. Click on any of the pictures above, or this link this link to see the rest of the album.

We realised that we didn't really do much last year in terms of going out, having fun, exploring our local environment, getting into the city, etc; and so we resolved to get back to that this year. Our first trip was to Starved Rock State Park, a couple of hours South and West of us in Olgesby, near Utica, along the Illinois river. It was recommended by a good friend of ours who had been there over twenty years ago.

The weather was gorgeous, in the 50s, and we got ourselves all set up with cameras, back pack baby carrier, hiking boots, etc. We had actually wanted to go about a month ago when all the snow was melting as we thought the waterfalls would be more impressive, but the weather didn't play ball that weekend. There was still some water in the falls, although I think later in the year, they all but dry up.

The park has 18 canyons and over 13 miles of trails, although we probably only walked about 5 or 6 miles of them, and it was more of a wander than a hike, as we took over 5 hours just wandering, stopping, photographing, exploring and teaching AJ about the various things we saw.

The canyons were formed by glacial meltwater and stream erosion, creating some outstanding rock formations primarily from sandstone from 425 million years ago. We saw at least three different very distinct colours, although of course there were several strata as you can see from the pictures.

Click here to read more about the history of the place if you are interested.

Unfortunately, despite the propensity of Bald Eagles in the park, in the winter, we were likely too late to see them, certainly in the abundance that apparently can occur. Due to the dam on the river, Bald Eagles migrate down from Wisconsin and other Northern states to be able to fish on the river, where it doesn't freeze. We did see one significantly large bird of prey, but I cannot guarantee if it was an Eagle or not, it was however very cool. We will likely try to go back next year earlier in the year and see if we can see more. In the meantime, here are the pictures we took.

I did learn something very cool. Bald Eagles once an endangered species and on the Federally protected list, are now no longer endangered. This is largely due to the Federal scheme and the removal of DDT from the environment. A great success story (I didn't take this picture BTW :-)

It is hard to believe it is almost April already, as they say where I grew up, "It'll soon be Christmas!!!!!" Work has been a bear since last summer, working through a major project which went live in the New Year. We have spent the last couple months under the gun, and whilst we are not 100% done, we are certainly feeling more comfortable now, and the pressure has eased considerably.



Home life wise, it's been a pretty quiet few months, as we get through the end of Winter and look forward to Spring, with the golf & baseball seasons starting again. The weather is changeable as Spring always is, with one day in the 70s and the next in the 40s. We had a good amount of snow this winter, although not as much as previous years, certainly not as much as last year. It is gone now though and the golf course have re-opened, I still suck Charlie (107 last weekend).

I did manage to squeeze in a whistlestop trip to Vegas for a buddy's 40th birthday and for the entire 4 day trip, spent less than $500 including flights and accommodation, thanks to a rather fortunate time or two at the craps tables. It's always nice to beat Vegas, even if it is just a little.

I don't know how people who have blogs manage to find something interesting to talk about every day or week, maybe I am just dull and boring (no confirmation necessary thanks!) But now that we are fully acclimatised to life here in the US, it really is very much a "New Life; Same As The Old Life".

So far we have been lucky job wise..ie I still have one, and we are able to maintain a decent lifestyle. I have, however, been consciously controlling the "fun" spending a little more, keeping the credit cards under control and ensuring that if the worst does happen we should be OK for several months at least. We have been thinking about another baby, especially as just about every other person we know is having one, or in some cases two, right about now. Of course this prompted thoughts about getting a bigger car, a new toy, but having reviewed the deals around, we decided to wait until we actually have another baby on the way at least!

We are still going to have fun this year of course, and in fact we have a number of trips planned or on the table. New York in May to meet Tim & Sara, Lorraine is going to the UK thru May & June, Jan is coming over here in July and sometime in the mix of all of that we have to fit in a trip to Florida too. So it should be a busy summer, especially when you factor in golf, and Cubs games too.

AJ is changing daily although the changes are less physical and more mental right now, or at least that's my opinion. She is 18 months now, and whilst small according to the "charts" she is running around like a crazy person and chatting away to anyone who will listen. Obviously spending all day with Lorraine is rubbing off on her!! Her vocabulary is huge and, I believe, (for what do I know really) very advanced for her age. She will of course repeat anything you say, but also is very good at using words and even phrases in context. She loves her books and drives us crazy reading the same ones over and over again.

This weekend, assuming the storms are not too bad, we are going to hook up the little bike trailer thingy we have for AJ and take some time to cycle down into town and along the lake front. If the weather is decent I might even take some pictures. In the meantime here are some that Lorraine took with Addy running around in the garden during a recent warmer spell.

Addison got her 1st official haircut last weekend. We went to a special place called Kids Cutz where they have cool kiddy cars to sit in, with a huge selection of DVDs to watch and very child friendly hair dressers.

As you can see in the picture here, they also had bubbles which AJ seemed to love. All in all it was a trim, so it didn't take long, and she was pretty relaxed for the most part.

As regular readers know we headed off back to the UK for our first Christmas there in 4 years. We set off on the 17th December the day after a huge snow storm in Chicagoland, which dropped approximately 6 inches of snow, causing many flights t be cancelled. As a result, for the first time we were forced to have Addison on our laps (mostly Lorraine's) for 8 solid hours, that was a tough trip

Arriving morning of the 18th in the UK, we were all pretty beat. It was cold for the UK and over the ensuing weeks got colder and even snowed

I played some golf, we both caught up with numerous friends, and generally had a jolly old time. I will write more in the next few days, and I also have some video of crazy Morris Men, a UK tradition, that I am sure my American readers will have some difficulty comprehending!